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Dec 31, 2014

I'm planning on entering this candy dispenser into a mason-jar instructables contest (what timing!), but I completely forgot to take in-progress photos when I was building it. So instead, I made a CAD model and will submit renderings instead. Below are the resulting photos:

Dec 12, 2014

This year, I made a wooden candy dispenser for Secret Santa. My hall's particular version of this tradition disallows spending any money for materials, but luckily we have an abundance of scrap wood.

I got one of these canning jars with the sealing lids. Throw out the seal part, superglue the lid's rim into a hole, and now the mason jar can screw directly into the piece of wood.

I laid out gear profiles using Solidworks's toolbox. Solidworks gears aren't involute, but my wooden gears don't care about power transmission. Not caring about power transmission also allows me to position my non-beveled wooden spur gears at right angles. (don't do this for anything real!)

I attempted to lasercut my gears from 3/8" plywood, but only got through 1/4" before the teeth turned to charcoal. On my second attempt, I lasercut guide lines into the plywood then completed the job with a scroll saw. The thicker large gear has two shapes glued together.

Scrap 2x6 and 4x4 form the body of the candy dispenser. I drilled holes and superglued metal pins in place. Scavenged dowels cap the pins.

If I do this project again in the future, I would cut the dispenser hole further away or cut an indent into the body. Currently the user has to hold their hands flush to the machine or candy spills.